Monday 12 November 2012

DPP 4 Real or Fake? Interesting Reading ...

DPP 4 Real or Fake makes interesting reading ...
 
I thought that I would reseach this module as I always do, I found some interesting reading was dates back to the early 1900s when photography was still relatively new.

Trotski and Stalin
 
By doing a google search on "falsification of photography" The first and most commonly found on the internet is that of Stalin and Trotsky.
 
Falsification of History of Communist Russia
 
 
Here Trotsky can be seen with Lenin, however in the following image he has been removed.  This image is now of a very dark grainy contrasted nature and shows a large gap where Trotsky once stood. 

 
Unwanted people in these photographs were called 'enemies of the people' they were not killed, but simply removed from the image.  There are several images like this and this is a definate attempt at changing History.  That being should the original image not exist then obviously we would believe the falsification to be a genuine image and be none the wiser.

I think this is a very sad attempt and distortion of history and has great consequences to the modern day.
 
[Online] at: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hick0088/classes/csci_2101/false.html accessed on 12/11/2012


Brian Walski
A professional photographer who was accused of altering an image in 2003 for the news papers.  He later admitted this to be the case.

Iraq Scandal
On March 30, 2003 Brian Walski took photographs near Basra, Iraq of British soldiers telling Iraqi civilians during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq to take cover. He took a number of pictures and while later viewing them decided to combine a couple of his images to create a superior picture. That day he sent the pictures to LA staff who posted them on the internal photo sharing system for various media outlets owned by the Tribune News Corporation. Media across the country ran the image including Walski's LA Times and the Tribune Corp owned, Hartford Courant. It was at the Courant that the image was noticed.  McGuire confirmed that the image was altered and contacted Colin Crawford, Los Angeles Times Director of Photography.  It took Crawford four days to get hold of Walski who was still in battle conditions covering the war. When confronted with the image Crawford said, "Give me an excuse. Tell me it was a satellite transmission problem. Say something." to which Walski replied, "No, I did it. I combined the two pictures.

[Onling] at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Walski [accessed on 12/11/2012]

Here are the 2 images that where altered to one.



The following image is the altered image showing great moral and unethical implications to viewers.  This was seen as a hugh disgrace and Walski was sacked.  I think Walski deserved to be sacked over this, as many different viewers of this image will take different views.  The War in Iraq is bad enough without falsification of images this could have had a detrimental effect on the whole situation.
 

[online images] http://www.sree.net/teaching/lateditors.html [accessed on 12/11/2012]

Jose Luis Rodriquez

This is a different story altogether, the actual image is 100% real, however it was a set up scene using a trained animal and not that of a wild animal as portrayed in the image which then went on to win a competition.


[online image] http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2010/jan/21/wolf-photographer-wildlife [accessed on 12/11/2012]

José Luis Rodriguez, was stripped of his £10,000 reward, the judges didnt believe that the wolf was a wild animal. They believe that he hired a tame animal in for the shot, however Rodriguez denies this be the case.

Suggested reading from Tutor...

Jeff Wall
Staged and scenario driven images


Another interesting site which is very controversial in terms of the images that have been recorded.

http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/